Games with Pencil and PaperThomas Nelson 1973, Dover 1994.
The Dover edition has an informative preface with reference to some
game theory results obtained after publication.

Games ProgrammingCambridge University Press 1984
The picture shows covers for some of the translations. It has
to be admitted that, being written before the widespread ownership
of PCs, this book is very out of date with respect to graphics.
However many of the data structures and algorithms are
still relevant. Several critics have remarked that it contains a
particularly clear explanation of the alpha-beta algorithm.

Black Box GamebookStrategy Games Ltd. 1977.
There was an American version of this little book which
presented Black Box puzzles with ray results given at the
back in such a way that it was difficult to cheat in any
'accidental' way.

BOARD GAMES

CORPORATIONNestor Games 2010. This is my latest game. It is a race game in
which players dynamically make the rules governing movement. Originally this was intended as an abstract
game but Nestor have found a very appropriate theme involving promotion of favoured staff to the
boardroom of a corporation.

BLACK BOX +Franjos 2007. The original Black Box game (see later) was first
marketed in 1977, and is regarded by many as a classic game of logic. Franjos has now
released BLACK BOX + which presents the new hexagonal version together with the original
game. The hexagonal version offers a richer variety of ray effects, and is more demanding.
It is obtainable on-line from www.funagain.com

SIGMA FILESeven Towns Ltd. 1972. This game of secret bidding for the control
of secret agents has been marketed worldwide under various names and by various
manufacturers as listed below. It is still marketed by Amigo and their version 'CASABLANCA' made
the Auswahlliste for Spiel Des Jahres in 1991.

THOUGHTWAVEIntellect (UK) 1974. An abstract connection game using
'pathway' pieces. It was also marketed by Parker (USA) under the name ULTRA.
The game is available on the web as an AI project at
Thoughtwave

ALASKARavensburger (Germany) 1979. A game involving the collection by
snowtrack vehicle of goods from an island surrounded by sea which progressively freezes
in winter, then melts in spring. This game reached the Auswahlliste for Spiel Des
Jahres in 1979.

BALLOON RACERavensburger (Germany) 1977. A gas/ballast balloon journey
to visit fixed points. Wind direction and strength are dependent on altitude.
Originally the balloons were discs with depressions for holding gas and ballast
counters. Balloons could be stacked at one point and it was easy to see the
status of a balloon. Ravensburger produced a magnificent board, but their
three-dimensional balloons required the gas and ballast to be held off the board,
and although they looked good they made play quite difficult.

BLACK BOXWaddington (UK) 1976. A well known game in which a player shoots
'X rays' into a box to determine the positions of 4 or 5 'atoms' positioned by the
opponent. This game has been produced by various manufacturers including Parker (USA),
and is currently marketed by Franjos (Germany).
It has also been very widely pirated as a computer game with no
acknowledgements, and it rankles a bit to see it advertised as "Ting's Black Box", and suchlike.
I began to collect sites offering the game but there are so many that I gave up! If you are
interested, I suggest doing a search with Google, or a similar search engine.

ENTROPYSkirrid International 1977. A two-player abstract game in which one
player acts for the forces of 'chaos' and the other for the forces of 'order'. The latter
attempts to create symmetrical sequences of adjacent pieces in the rows and the columns. Every
distinct symmetric sequence wins as many points as there are pieces in the sequence. Thus,
the sequence RED, BLUE, BLUE, RED scores six points because RED, BLUE, BLUE, RED scores
four points, and BLUE, BLUE scores two points. On his turn the chaos player draws (blind draw)
a single piece from the bag and places it on a vacant square. He will try to place it where
it will impede the production of symmetric sequences when the 'order' player takes his turn.
The 'order' player is permitted to slide any one piece over vacant squares along its row or
column.

This game was also produced by Skirrid under the name VICE-VERSA, and in the USA under the
name VIS-A-VIS (possibly by Selchow and Richter). It is currently produced in Germany by
Franjos under the names HYLE and HYLE 7.
HYLE uses a 5x5 board and is suitable for children. HYLE 7 is the version used for
serious competition and, as its name implies, uses a 7x7 board. The game has
been included as one of the events at the annual Mind Sports Olympiad ever since its
inception. Some people have suggested that, as pieces are drawn from a bag, chance must
play a large part. This is certainly not the case, as confirmed by the fact that
the MSO World Championship has been won by the same person (Demis Hassabis) on four occasions.

SPELLMAKERHeritage (USA) 1978. A multi-player game in which wizards cast
spells in order to bring a princess to their own castle. Having received no royalty
statements or payments I was somewhat concerned. By sheer chance I encountered the chief
executive in Dave Rotor's models shop in Victoria. He assured me that my interests
would be "safeguarded as hitherto they had not been", and offered me £100 cash not to
cause trouble. I refused and insisted on proper royalty statements. I should have taken
the cash!
Thanks to Stephen Tavener for the picture.

BILLABONGFranjos (Germany) 1994. A multi-player race involving teams
of kangaroos. This was sublicensed to Amigo who marketed it under the same name.
The game made the Auswahlliste for Spiel Des Jahres in 1994.

On his turn a player selects one of his kangaroos and executes a series of draughts-style
jumps but using the 'long jump' principle. That is the kangaroo must land as far beyond
its 'pivot' kangaroo (of any colour) as it starts and there may be no other kangaroos
on its path. A 'referee' kangaroo is placed on the starting square at the start of the
turn, and may itself be used as a pivot. Kangaroos may also walk one square in any
direction. They may start the game on any square but must cross the start/finish line
twice to complete the course, and then they are put into the billabong to cool off.

Because leading kangaroos are useful pivots, the game is almost always a close contest.
The game FROGGO on the Java Games page is an adaptation of BILLABONG for animated amphibians.

HEXAGRAMSGames Centre 1978. This is an abstract tiling puzzle
involving a mathematically complete group of pieces. A computer version is
included on the Java Games page so will not be described here. 'Interpretation'
of the solutions provides much of the fun. See the galleries below the applet.